


Fluke

by vophius



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Exy (All For The Game), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 03:10:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15899697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vophius/pseuds/vophius
Summary: Before today, the only things Neil had known about Andrew was that: he was Kevin’s possibly cryptid roommate, he was the only person Kevin knew that actually stood up to Professor Riko when he was being an asshole besides Neil, and that, despite the fact that Kevin and Neil saw each other almost every day, and treated each others’ apartments like they were their own, Neil had never seen him before.





	Fluke

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my SUPER DUPER FREAKING AMAZING ARTIST [@broship-addict](https://broship-addict.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> I hope y'all enjoy the fic! It was a long time coming, and honestly, I had no idea what the finished product would look like, but I'm altogether pretty satisfied.

Neil’s pissed. Like, the kind of pissed you get only after your alarm doesn’t wake you up for your morning run, a car clips you as you’re sprinting to class only to find out your class actually started thirty minutes earlier, and that today was the one day the professor actually checked for attendance. 

Which had, coincidentally, all happened to him that morning. And just when Neil thought he could finally go back to his miniscule apartment he’d gotten for cheap because it constantly smelled like a meth lab and sleep the day off, he’d discovered that Kevin had grabbed the emergency key hidden in the crack between the door and the frame the last time he’d been drunk, and forgotten to put it back. 

He almost breaks down and cries for the first time since he left his father’s house in the summer of fourth grade. Almost is the key word though. Instead, Neil sucks in the the tear that’s almost escaped his left eye, stands up from his fetal position on the floor, and vows to snap every single # 2 perfectly sharpened pencil Kevin has. 

Fifteen minutes later, Neil’s out of breath from trying to catch the campus bus, and, if possible, is even madder than before. He stomps up the six (SIX) flights to Kevin’s top floor apartment (after of course staring at the out of service sign on the elevator for so long the girl that had walked in after him had gave him a concerned look), and slams the door open as hard as he can. 

Since the chain is still in place, it doesn’t get the desired effect he wants. Sighing, Neil looks around, and grabs one of the pieces of poster tacky left over from the last hallway paint job, and a hair tie from his wrist. Only after he opens the door and walks in does he realize that he could’ve just knocked and added to Kevin’s embarrassment by yelling at him in the middle of the hallway. 

Neil walks in to the middle of the little living room, where he knows from experience that the acoustics are the best, and starts yelling the speech he’d planned while he ran the half mile from his apartment to Kevin’s.

“Kevin you useless piece of shit! I swear to god if you don’t get down here and literally beg me not to destroy your weak-ass excuse for an aesthetic apartment, I will go upstairs and _drag_ your ass down all SIX OF THE GODDAMN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS I HAD TO WALK UP.”

By the end of it, Neil can feel how red his face is, and can almost imagine steam rushing out of his ears. Somehow, his face gets even redder when he realizes that there was another person in the room the whole time. And then he gets confused. Because, until Neil came into his life, Kevin constantly pushed away every other person except for a long string of girlfriends lasting only a couple of days each. Even before Neil approached him in orientation, Kevin didn’t have any friends or even people he would dare call acquaintances. 

“Who the fuck are you, and why are you in Kevin’s apartment?”

“I should ask you that, small angry child, as I am Day’s roomate, and you’re just the kid who picked my lock and started screaming in the middle of my apartment.”

Neil’s too flabergasted to come up with a proper retort, but his brain flashes with some fragments of a sentence involving, short, emo, and I’m 22 thank you very much. 

“You’re Andrew?”

He feels a little cheated. Until this point, Neil that thought Andrew would be some druggie- esque punk (possibly goth) kid with way too many piercings, but instead, he was just a short blonde guy with murderous enough eyes that Neil supposed most people wouldn’t realize or choose not to acknowledge the angry pout that seems more suited to a five year old throwing a tantrum. 

“Like Andrew, Andrew? The guy who called Riko ‘a sexist homophobic asshole who couldn’t tell his ass from his mouth and only stayed in his position because his uncle was the head of the school?’ ”

“Is that really all I’m known for, still?”

“Uhh, yeah. And the fact that you’ve threatened to knife at least a third of the population.” 

Instead of being embarrassed or threatening to knife Neil as well, Andrew just nods almost proudly. 

There’re a couple of seconds of awkward silence - at least for Neil - before he remembers why he was in Kevin’s apartment in the first place. 

“Do you know where Kevin is?”

Andrew just shrugs, and instead of giving suggestions, apparently decides the conversation is over, and goes back to doing whatever he was doing in the dark recess of the old couch Kevin and Neil lugged into the apartment back in Neil’s freshman year. 

Some of the anger that had dissipated during Neil and Andrew’s conversation (if a one sided question and answer could count as that) came back almost violently. 

“By the way, there’s literally so many liquor spills and throw up stains on the couch that it’s turned from green to brown. I wouldn’t sit on it if I were you”. Instead of getting the intended result of Andrew jumping dramatically off the couch and perhaps bleaching the entire room and himself, Andrew merely turns up the music of the game he was playing, and settles more into the couch. 

With a sigh, Neil just turns around and walks out the door and down the six flights of stairs - too tired to even complain to Matt Boyd and Dan Wilds when they return to their suite to the left of Neil’s. 

 

The next day’s going better, so much better in fact that Neil almost forgets he’s mad at Kevin. He remembers again after Professor ‘Call me Coach’ Wymack holds him back after class, and tells Neil that he would ‘advise Neil join a study group he’d formed to help kids who might not get the help otherwise’. And then he says Kevin recommended he talk to Neil. Neil just snatches the schedule Wymack’s holding out to him out of Wymack’s hand and walks until he’s out of Wymack’s sight before sprinting the rest of the way back. 

A couple hours later, after he had vented to Matt and Dan, and they all bashed Kevin together, Neil finally looked at the schedule. As petty as he wants to be, and just not show up, Neil knows that he’s dangerously close to failing out of Wymack’s _Intro to Analyzing Literature_ class, which, combined with the failing and disciplinary marks received in Riko’s _Advanced Chem,_ could lead to him having to retake that semester, which would require money Neil both didn’t have, and wouldn’t have wanted to waste on something as easily preventable as missing attendance.

Sitting down at his flimsy Ikea desk and dragging his complimentary Bird of the Month Calendar towards him, Neil slowly pencils in “Wymack: Study Group 7:30 AM” for each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of the current month and next. 

 

 

The next day, Neil woke up extra early to try to finally finish up his essay on monetary systems, and how they affect youth's perception of disposable incomes he had been putting off, but instead jogged around his building a couple of times. While he was entering, however, Neil got a quick glance of someone who looked questionably similar to Andrew entering the building. Not willing to embarass himself even further, Neil instead decides to jump into the hedges that made a border between his apartment building and the fresh fish store next door that always emanated a scent similar to rotting hydrangeas for some reason. 

He found out how bad his idea was an hour later, when he sat down at a table with three other people, two of the three nodding off into their notebooks. Wymack sat slumped at the head of the table, look tired and yet somehow still imposing with the stained sweater vest and rumpled sweatpants look he had going on. 

Keeping his head down, Neil slouched his way to the last empty seat next to a curly haired latino looking boy. When Neil sat down, despite trying to make his descent as soft as possible, the boy woke up, bleary eyes scanning the room before landing on Neil. 

He lights up with a grin, and Neil’s already mentally preparing himself for the next hour. "Hi! You must be Neil! I'm Nicky. Wymack said we were getting another fox, but I didn't realize you were going to be this hot." Deciding to ignore the rest of the sentence, Neil instead asks about the fox part. "Oh, he didn't tell you about that? Near the beginning of the year, Allison and I - " At this Nicky craned his neck around, even going as far as to flip backwards in his seat and check underneath the table. Neil itches his neck. The hedges from his earlier last minute escape were coming back to bite. "Guess she's not here yet. Anyway, what was I saying before? Did I mention yet that skinny jeans would look great on you?" "Umm... No. But you were explaining why you were called the foxes." "Oh yeah! So Allison and I put in our suggestion for the name, and we won!" "But why foxes." At this point, Neil wondered if it was even worth it to ask him again. He hadn't got a straight answer the first (or second) time after all. Luckily, Nicky appeared to find this question direct enough. "Because we're foxy! Get it!." Nicky nudged Neil in what appeared to be a friendly manner, but apparently his sleep deprivation had also impaired his hand eye coordination, or he was just naturally clumsy enough to accidentally shove Neil into the next person over. Who happened to be Andrew Minyard. His luck really was the worst. "You!" The boy, previously believed to be Andrew, looks confused, a total 180° from the last time Neil had seen him, where he had just had a bored, and slightly apathetic, expression. "Me?" “Andrew!" A dark look crosses Not - Andrew's face. "Fucking Andrew." By this point, Neil has no idea whatsoever of what is going on. Did Andrew forget? Did Andrew just like to piss people off by pretending he wasn't himself? WAS THIS EVEN ANDREW? "Wait... if you're not Andrew, who are you?" Not-Andrew takes a self deprecating sigh, plasters on an obviously fake smile, and holds out a hand to shake. “Nice to meet you. I'm Aaron Minyard, Andrew's twin brother, and I'm here because I'm failing out of Wymack's class." Neil shakes his hand limply. "Oh, well. Nice to meet you too then." Both turn back to where they were originally seated. Nicky's back to being fast asleep at the table, a string of drool slipping out slowly, so Neil takes the silence to look around the room. While Aaron and him were having their argument, informative session, conversation mashup, whatever it was, a couple more people had trickled in. 

The two that had just entered were tilted towards each other. All Neil could see of them were the girl’s bright smile, and the guy’s half spiked hair, which looked suspiciously like - 

“Matt?”

The boy twisted around so fast in his seat, Neil was surprised he didn’t get whiplash. 

“Hey buddy! What’re you doing here?”

“I thought I told you I was failing English yesterday?”

“Unless you failing English has somehow become connected to why Kevin’s a “lying traitorous assbutt with less sense than room 309’s pet raccoon”, than no.”

“Oh. Well why are you here?” Neil had distinctly remembered Matt celebrating with Dan and him about how he didn’t have to take any English credit classes this year after his hellish senior year of highschool finally paid off in AP class credits. 

“I’m Dan’s moral support” Matt says with a grin. “This is her first time TAing, so Wymack uses her mostly to grade papers and lead the study sessions while he does the lesson plan.”

Neil could vaguely remember Dan and Matt going out for a celebration dinner a couple months back that had something to do with TAing. 

“Cool.”

“C’mon. I’ll introduce you to everyone else here. Allison’s always a couple of minutes late, and Kevin on some weird schedule that only he and Wymack know. 

Neil experiences a wave of uncomfortableness. What alternate universe had he landed in where Kevin Day (son of the late Dean of Exy College, Kayleigh Day) was failing out of a class? 

“Kevin? Nerd Kevin? Kevin ‘You can only be successful if you’re pumping your brain full of knowledge every second when you’re not asleep, and even then it’s a thin line’ Day?” 

“Yeah, I was as surprised as you are. You know how Kevin mysteriously broke his hand after that weird-ass office hours meeting with Rickety Melodrama to discuss his lab results? Well, since then his handwriting has apparently become so awful that his grades have started to drop in the courses that require annotating and stuff like that.”

Only Kevin would fail because of something as easily fixed as handwriting issues. Wymack probably offered to let him type up his notes and he refused on the basis that “handwriting lets him connect with the writing more eloquently” or some bullshit answer like that. 

Neil just lets out a groan and rolls his eyes. 

Dan stands up from her seat next to Matt, looking way too presentable and energetic for this early in the morning.

“Good morning foxes, and welcome to today's study session for _Intro to Analyzing Literature_. Apparently every single one of you except for Renee -” 

A softly smiling girl with pastel hair waves at the group. Neil is instantly on edge. No girl that sweet looking and sorority girl-like should be in a study session. It’s practically a rule. 

“- and Kevin -” Kevin merely looks imperviously over at them, his gaze not even hesitating as he looked over at Neil. Now Neil knows for sure that he was the one to offer his name up to Wymack. 

“- failed last Monday’s test and we’re going to use the time today to figure out why.”

Neil knows why he failed it. They were supposed to be analyzing Dickens’ _A Tale of Two Cities_ and Neil couldn’t figure out the romance at all, which appeared to be at least 95% of what the book is about. Also, the whole premise just seemed really fucking stupid, and therefore Neil couldn’t be bothered to read more than the SparkNotes version of it. 

“If someone doesn’t raise their hand in fifteen seconds I’m going to start choosing.” Dan’s education major is clearly already paying off. Neil can already imagine her in a room full of unruly second graders. 

As Neil had predicted, no one raised their hand. 

Dan sighs, apparently coming to the same conclusion.

“Nicky, you go first.”

Nicky is still fast asleep. Aaron reaches over and shoves him, harder than necessary, and Nicky pops up, a smile on his face despite the dried drool.

“Hi Dan! Yes, Darnay seemed like a complete asshole. Must’ve been pretty hot though. I was also getting a whole lotta Darnarton vibes, which like, understandable, but I feel like Dickens could’ve made that more front seat over the Lucy drama.”

Wymack buries his face in his hands and stands up with a grunt. “Dan, you can sit down. I’ll take over now.”

Dan looks way too crushed from this off-handed comment than she should be. 

“Minyard number one, how did the time period the book was written in reflect on the sexism of the marital choice Lucy had to make.”

Neil couldn’t remember any questions like this on the test, but he had also given up after skimming the first pages of the packet and only knowing three of the questions.

“Well Mr. Coach, as you can see by the choices Carton chooses to make without consulting Lucy, but the number of choices in marriage she is still able to make, there are examples of sexism prevalent in every aspect of it, yet the could still be called forward thinking for it’s time. Can I leave now?” 

Wymack just shoos him out of the classroom. 

Neil zones out for most of the other answers, but retains a few bits of information, mostly on the other students rather than the answers themselves, including but not limited to:

Aaron is required to take this class despite the fact that he’s pre-med, and is overall as much if not more of an asshole than Other Minyard.

Allison couldn’t care less, and only goes to the study hall to spend time with Renee, who appears to be either her very, very close friend or a conservative girlfriend.

Kevin is as much an asshole here if not more than he is in most classroom environments. 

More than one fox sees Wymack as a father figure. 

And last but not least, 

Neil is not the only one with issues. 

Finally, the allotted hour is up and Neil is able to leave. The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday pass mostly uneventfully, excluding the part where Neil verbally humiliates Riko in his 2 pm Advanced Chemistry class and Riko tries failing him again. Kevin tried yelling at him afterwards for being a bad student, and Neil finally remembered to get his key back. 

On Thursday morning Neil oversleeps. Not uncommon for Neil, or most every other college student to do, but that means that Neil doesn’t have time for a shower or a change after his morning run, and shows up to Wymack's study hall in running leggings and an oversized sweatshirt. He’s also five minutes later than everyone else, which means Wymack zeroes in on him as soon as he opens the door and makes his way quickly to the last seat left, which happened to be in the middle of Nicky and Andrew. Nicky immediately starts gushing about his ass and Neil is too uncomfortable to stop it until Andrew intervenes with a flash of a knife extracted from somewhere on his person. 

Neil is stopped from the beginning of a panic attack by Wymack calling on him to answer a question.

“Umm… Can you repeat that?”

Wymack just mutters something under his breath about being “too old for this shit” and “insolent dumbasses” and repeats the question. “Why do you think the trope of sacrificial love is so prevalent in this book, and what reflection do you think this has on Carton's character?”

Neil can remember this question. It was number ten, and coincidentally the tenth question he didn’t have an answer to. 

“Well, I think this shows that Carton’s character was extremely suicidal and reached for any escape from life.”

Wymack just stares at him, jaw open. 

“That- that’s it? What about the love part of it?”

Neil has no fucking clue. 

“He doesn’t love life?”

“Okay, I’ll give you an easier question. Why do you feel like Carton would sacrifice himself for Darnay, and do you think Darnay would do the same for Carton in the opposite situation?”

Neil’s starting to get a little angry. He doesn't have a clue about why Carton would die for Darnay, and this study session was supposed to tell him that, not call him out on it.

“Because Carton’s a fucking idiot, and no I don’t, because as much of an asshole Darnay is, he isn’t stupid.”

Kevin’s apparently trying to convey the correct answer to him through different glares and angry eyebrow movements. Spoiler: it isn’t working. 

Wymack appears to be waiting for him to elaborate and there’s about a minute or so about before anyone bothers to speak up. Surprisingly, it’s Andrew. Neil hadn’t got the sense that he generally tended to speak up without being prompted or threatened first. 

“He’s fucking ace or somewhere on that spectrum and appears to have the observational skills of a middle schooler, Coach. It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t understand the love triangle at all.” 

Minyard wasn’t wrong, but that doesn't mean he had to be a jerk about it. Neil frowns at him. Minyard just raises one eyebrow and continues staring apathetically just over Neil’s right shoulder. 

Wymack speaks up again in a voice more suited to trauma patients than a college student that didn’t know the answer to a question. 

“Is that right, Neil?”

“I’m not that cool, and I don’t understand how that would be related to my understanding of love triangles.” 

Wymack just nods towards Minyard, who says, in possibly the dullest voice Neil has heard a human speak in, that “Ace is short for asexual, meaning a person with a lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent interest in or desire for sexual activity.” 

It sounds like it came straight from dictionary.com, but it isn’t wrong. In fact, it seems kind of right. 

“I guess he’s right Coach.” 

“Alright then. Minyard, you’re officially Neil’s tutor in terms of the love or relationship aspects of the books. In return, I’ll pass you for attendance. Minyard - a tub of ice cream for each session.”

Wait.. 

Andrew crosses his arms across his chest and leans even further back in his chair. 

“Fine. But if he refuses to learn I’m out.”

What?

Neil got through the rest of the day by the power of fifteen minute naps between periods, and even with the extra sleep he still ends up staring at the clock and ignoring his professors for far longer than he should’ve. 

After his last lecture and before his _Chem Application_ class, (taught by the one and only, you guessed it, Roadkill More-yams) Neil finally gives in and gooes to the local Starbucks (™) despite his belief that it’s a capitalist construct created by people already wealthier than they needed to be, intent on milking broke college kids for the coins they found in their couch cushions. 

The coffee shop was packed to the gills when Neil entered, which was no surprise as Hell-Week was only three weeks or so away, but Neil still groans upon seeing that almost every table was completely or partially. Nevertheless, Neil orders his black coffee no sugar, ignores the routine grimace the barista flashes after hearing it, and goes to try and find a seat. 

Lo and behold, at the only table with a seat available (actually three which was practically a Christmas miracle for today) sat who Neil hoped was Aaron Minyard. It was not. 

Maybe Neil had done something truly horrible in his life, like, caused the death of Mother Teresa level of horrible, because nothing less than that could equate to the level of bad luck he’d been having for the past two weeks. Scratch that, entire life. 

But who knows? Andrew could’ve just been having a bad couple of weeks as well! Maybe he was one of those students Dan had been talking about a couple of weeks ago who had to take their Bio-Chem finals a month early because the teacher was leaving for maternity leave and had ‘technically’ taught them all of the material required for the semester. 

With that thought in mind, Neil sat down at the table, not bothering to disturb Andrew’s music induced trance to ask for permission. Despite the appearance of deafness to the outside world, Andrew looks up as Neil sits down, eyebrow already lifted. Neil could already tell that his wish for Andrew’s bad mood to be a result of school stress was unanswered. 

Neil tries to be social anyway. “At least _act_ like you passed the Turing Test” as Dan would say. 

“So, uh.. Why are you in Wymacks study hall anyway if you already know your shit?”

Andrew just stares at him until Neil starts shifting side to side. 

“Rule number one of tutoring. No small talk.”

Alright. Neil can do this. He starts to open his mouth to comply, but rethinks it and just nods his head. No matter what the world throws at him for the last month of the semester, he _will_ pass this class. 

They sit in comfortable silence for the remainder of Neil’s break, something rarely achieved with Matt and Dan, who seem to feel like silence was just another thing to fill (the first being Neil’s parental roles). 

Finally Andrew closes his computer with a snap, and Neil looks up at the clock. _Shit._ He’s going to be five minutes late and Riko’s going to do his whole “you’re an embarrassment to your generation and it would be better if you just died rather than continue to waste your parents’ money” spiel. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, it doesn’t come to that. 

As soon as Neil stands up it seems like the whole coffee shop goes silent for the first time since he entered. The only thing he can hear is the barista calling out the name Nathaniel, sounding too similar to his father’s demon secretary for his mind to distinguish. The walls start closing in and his breaths start coming faster until he can only concentrate on the warm weight on the back of his neck and the surprisingly soothing voice of Andrew - “...” Minyard telling him to focus on his hands. 

It takes a couple of minutes, but Neil comes back to himself. Luckily not much time seemed to have passed, and as weak as his legs seem to be, Neil knows he can still manage to make it to the science wing before the period ends. 

Neil pulls away with a quick thanks and stumbles forward, still feeling the weight of Andrew’s curious but unpitying gaze on his back. 

Sure enough, when he enters Riko’s classroom the professor already has a sleazy smile across his face. Neil decides in that moment that no teacher should get that much pleasure out of the humiliation of his students, but just purses his lips and takes his seat at the back of the lecture hall, already pulling out his notebook and pen. 

Neil feels like he aged five years in the time it takes for Riko to finish lecturing. He still has enough soul left to jump a little in surprise when he finds Andrew standing outside of door to the classroom. 

“What the fuck,” Neil says tiredly. 

Andrew just looks at him.

“I’ve decided to propose a deal.”

“Umm.. Alright. What’s the deal.”

Andrew waits a couple of seconds, for only what Neil can assume is for dramatic effect. 

“Truth for truth. I’ll tell you a truth and you give me one in return.”

It sounds pretty straightforward, but Neil’s still suspicious. Why would Andrew, infamous for his lack of caring, miraculously passing every single one of his classes (except for English apparently), and the man you go for a one night stand, be interested in him? He says as much to Andrew, without the whole one night stand part of course.

“You don’t add up.”

“Well I’m not a fucking math problem for one.” 

Andrew gives him a deadpan stare. “I’ll still solve you though.”

“Fine. Go ahead. Ask me a truth.”

“No. I don't want to do this here. Meet me on the roof of the Trojan’s wing at 8 pm. Don’t be late.” 

And with that, Andrew turns away, and Neil watches him go with the peculiar thought that if this were a hundred years ago, invisible coattails would be flapping behind him. Instead, he’s just a black shadow melding into the crowd. 

Time passes slowly, and the hands of the clocks in the classrooms seem to take a lifetime to switch from minute to minute. 

Finally it’s 6pm and Neil’s last lecture ends with Rehmann sending them out with a faint yell of “Remember the middle ages assignment due on the 21st!” and a wave of his chalk dusted hands. 

It takes Neil another thirty minutes or so to locate the door to the roof, and another fifteen debating whether or not to pick the lock. Finally giving up on finding a key or asking Dan, Neil pulls out his lockpick set, one of the only things he indulged in when going to college, and, with a sigh, feels the familiar clicks of the ridges settling in place and swings the door open, leaving it slightly ajar for Andrew. 

He wastes another thirty minutes aimlessly kicking rocks and cigarette stubs off of the ledge before finally settling down with his laptop and headphones. Time passes quicker now as he settles into the groove of writing, and it feels only minutes later when the door creaks open and Andrew strides in. 

Neil leaps up in surprise, but instead of coming any closer Andrew just leans against the side of the building and pulls out a cigarette and lighter. He lights up quickly, and tosses the pack to Neil, who fumbles the catch. 

He manages to pull out a cigarette and gestures silently for Andrew to toss over the cheap bic lighter as well. 

Andrew waits for Neil to light up as well before asking him his first question, no greetings. 

“Why didn’t you ask Wymack for a different test or explain to him instead of just showing up to the study hall?”

Neil wasn’t expecting this. If anything, he’d thought that Andrew would perhaps proposition him, or even ask about the panic attack in Starbucks, but not this.

“I just thought I hadn’t read certain parts well enough or I missed the lectures where they explained it. I’ve always had problems with the emotional aspects of literature, so.”

Andrew just nods sharply, like he was expecting something similar but wanted Neil to confirm it. 

Neil scuffs his foot a couple of times against the gritty concrete while choosing a question from the mental list he compiled somewhere between Riko’s class and six o’clock. He decides to mirror Andrew.

“Why are you in Wymack’s as well?”

Andrew takes another drag and answers slowly and deliberately.

“I had to repeat because I missed part of the year. Instead of making me redo the whole year Wymack allowed me to come to the study sessions instead.”

Neil’s about to follow up with a question about the missed part of the year, but before he can do more than open his mouth, Andrew shushes him with a finger up to his lips, crushes his cigarette beneath his heel, and yanks hard on the door handle to jam it open, before leaving as suddenly as he arrived. 

Neil rubs his eyes, not sure if the last twenty minutes had been anything more than an illusion. It appeared not though, because in the process of rubbing his eyes, he also drops his still lit cigarette straight on the frayed laces of his ratty sneakers. He doesn’t see the door finish closing as he’s too busy trying to put out the small fire he just created. 

With a huff, Neil finally manages to put it out. He picks up his books silently one by one, and just sits, the rooftop as gray and alone as he, until the dark sky begins to pour. 

Shoelaces untied and shirt untucked, Neil stumbles home, and falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. His last thought before falling into the abyss is if he remembered to lock the door. 

When Neil arrives at Wymack’s classroom the next morning the door is locked and Allison and Renee are waiting outside. 

“Hey.” 

Renee waves sweetly in reply and Allison just adjusts her sunglasses and blows a pastel pink bubble. 

“Do y’all know where we’re supposed to go or what we’re supposed to do?”

“Yeah actually. Wymack told me to stay here and tell all of y’all to go down to Nino’s Pizza on second street when you arrive.”

Neil nods, and starts walking back out before turning back. 

“So why’s Allison here?”

Renee just smiles mysteriously and waves him on. 

A waiter with a shock of wild dark hair and bright green clogs greets him with a dull “Welcome to Nino’s” when he enters the otherwise empty pizza shop, and Neil begins to wonder whether there was a second Nino’s he didn’t know about when he spots a shock of black spikey hair and hears an exasperated but fond “Matt.” 

Neil grins and sprints outside, the door jingling behind him, and shouts a greeting to Matt and Dan. Matt responds with an excited “Hey little buddy!” and Dan with a “Pipsqueak” and a ruffle to his hair. Both affectionate nicknames coined after they found out Neil was an only child. 

They tell him enthusiastically about Wymack’s cancellation of today’s lesson and the free laser tag he’d planned instead as they walk towards the arcade located to the left of Nino’s. 

When they enter the dimly lit arcade Wymack is looming just inside the door, making Neil freeze up before forcibly relaxing. Wymack gives him an unreadable look but just grunts a hello and leads them to where the rest of the foxes are located including Allison and Renee, who must have left directly after Neil. 

Wymack takes charge clapping his hands together and straightening up.

“So, as Dan has hopefully told you, today we’re taking a break. One game of laser tag, two groups. I will not be playing,” Nicky theatrically groans. “to the obvious disappointment of some here. The monsters and Neil will play on one team, while Allison, Renee, Matt and Dan will play on the other team.”

“Monsters?” Neil whispers to Matt. 

“Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting you’ve only been here for a week or so. The monsters are Kevin, Nicky, Aaron, and Andrew. Nicky and Aaron just kinda got grouped in with Andrew and Kevin’s practically attached to Andrew during the study sessions.”

Though still slightly confused, Neil assumes an educated expression and “ahh”s convincingly. 

There’s a lapse of silence before Wymack turns around and starts briskly walking towards the black-light glowing Laz’r Tag sign proudly proclaiming a two for one deal hung over the dark doorway to what Neil can only assume is the entrance to the lazer tag arena.

The quiet is thick and tense as they all get suited up in their respected orange and white jackets and get handed a gun. Neil never likes to stand out much, but his competitiveness may get ahead of him here. 

It does. The time isn’t even halfway up yet and Neil’s shot Dan and Matt, and set up Allison for Nicky to shoot point blank. Renee hasn’t been found yet, but Neil knows it’ll only be a matter of time with the skewed odds. Neil, Nicky, and Aaron wander around looking behind each heavy foam block for Renee. They decide to separate, and finally Neil hears Aaron shout that he’s found her. He tries to move in the direction of Aaron’s voice, but finds his path blocked by the foam. 

With a speculative glance, Neil backs up a couple of paces and tosses his gun up to the top of the nearest block, then runs up the block until he can grab the ledge and pull himself the rest of the way up, scanning his surroundings as soon as he’s fully standing with gun in hand. Neil quickly yells to Aaron and runs in the direction of the answering yell. It sounds like Renee with Aaron in pursuit is getting closer. 

It takes a couple more times of Neil and Aaron shouting back and forth and updating each other on their locations, but finally Neil spots a shock of white blonde hair in the dark alleyway a couple of meters to his left. He waits for her to pass him, but instead she turns tail and follows his lead, scaling a block as well. 

Neil takes the opportunity to fire off a shot, but Renee’s just out of range, and getting further away. Neil quickly shouts to Aaron that he’s got her, and takes off running. Jumping the gaps and swerving to avoid the shots Renee’s firing off behind her shoulder. And then he trips on a ledge and falls, luckily onto another foam block, but it’s already been too long and Neil’s lost what distance he’d gained on Renee. 

But just when he’s almost given up (Nicky had yelled up to him a couple of minutes into the chase that she’d nailed him before Aaron or he could spot her and she’d shot down at the unsuspecting Aaron when Neil was focusing on a particularly large gap to jump), an electronic shot sounds and the loudspeaker announces that his team, the orange team, had won. 

“Guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, unfortunately, your game has finished with the orange team winning! Please collect your prizes and return your vests and guns at the front desk, and have a great rest of your day.”

Neil hops off the foam block and starts jogging back to the entrance, hair curling with sweat. On his way back he intercepts Aaron and asks him who killed Renee.

Aaron looks surprised at this.

“I thought you did?”

“No, I was up there chasing her and I tripped and heard her get shot a couple of seconds later.”

“Huh. Maybe Nicky did it?”

“No, I saw him get shot a while ago.”

They both look at each other as if coming to the same conclusion. 

“No.”

“But-”

“Andrew?” They said in unison, Neil with surprise, and Aaron with disbelief. 

When they come back their suspicions are confirmed by Renee, who accepts her defeat with grace and congratulates the rest of them on their performance. When Nicky finds them he pulls them both into a rigid hug before releasing them with an “ouch Andrew!” 

Neil quickly turns to face Andrew, intending to ask him about his hiding spot and winning kill before he could disappear back to whatever hell-hole he crawled out of. 

Andrew looks at him, Neil’s questioning gaze the only thing keeping him from fleeing.

“Is this a question.”

“Yes, yes, truth for truth. What were you doing during the lazer tag game?”

“Same as you. Playing.”

Neil gives him an exasperated look, and Andrew has the audacity to ask if he can go yet. 

“No, did you get Renee?”

Andrew finally turns to face him fully and lets out a sigh, as if realizing that this conversation isn’t going to be as short as he had hoped for.

“Yes. I heard you both approaching overhead and shot up once she jumped the two blocks I was standing between.”

“Wow,” Neil says admiringly. “You must have amazing reflexes.” 

Andrew glares at him until Neil goes back to being blank faced.

“You killed the rest of them. How.”

“By shooting them.” Neil drawls. “How else. And I didn’t kill all of them.”

Andrew just gives him a look, and Neil concedes. 

“Okay, okay. I used to be super into those shooter games.”

“Do you smell a liar too?”

“Fine.” It’s serious time now. At least this truth isn’t too revealing. “My mom was pretty paranoid. She thought I needed to know how to protect myself.”

“By shooting someone?”

Neil shrugs. “You never know.”

“I guess not.”

The rest of their conversation is interrupted by Matt and Dan waving him over. Both with confused expressions on their face.

“How are you talking to the monster?” Dan asks, her voice worried instead of confused like Neil had thought she was. “Do I need to hurt him?”

“Andrew? He started talking to me first. And no. I can hurt him myself if need be.”

“So you had a question about tutoring than?” Matt’s talking now, apparently they’ve been practicing their good cop bad cop routine. 

“..Sure.”

“Anyways, Dan and I were wondering if you wanted to go out for lunch or something since Dan’s lecture was cancelled.”

“Yeah sure.”

“I’ll pay.” Matt says with a wide grin. 

It’s a weird feeling, having friends. Neil’s still not used to it even in his second year of college, and his third year since his mother died. Without her standing by and constantly consulting him on what to say, and who could potentially be working for his father, he was unsure of how to act. It felt nice though, having someone to rely on and that didn’t ask for anything in return. It didn’t stop Neil from trying to settle the debt that he felt existed between them, and only Kevin seemed to understand that sometimes it was just easier for them to keep score. 

Neil waves goodbye to the rest of the group over his shoulder, and watches Andrew watch him leave. 

Quickly, before asking Matt and Dan if it was okay, and before he lost his nerve, Neil shouts to get Andrew’s attention.

“Hey! Do you want to get lunch with Dan, Matt, and I?”

Andrew replies in a normal voice, and so Neil has to quickly run back to hear the tail end of his response.

“-only 8:49 dumbass.” 

Neil correctly interprets this as a yes and quickly tells him the address, wondering aloud briefly whether Andrew wanted him to write it down for him.

Andrew replies with a succinct “no.” And walks past Neil to the exit. Neil smiles after him before jogging up to where Dan and Matt had been waiting for him, looking like what Neil would expect proud parents looked like when their child did something new. 

“Hey guys. Sorry I didn’t ask y’all if you were okay with Andrew coming.”

Dan smiled indulgently at him. “No no, Matt and I are just glad you’re making other friends, even if it is Andrew.” A dark look passes her face briefly. 

Neil still doesn’t know what the others find so bad about Andrew other than his general moodiness and demeanor, and well, his more than a little odd transfixation on knives. Okay, he can kind of understand why people may find Andrew a off putting. But hey, he hadn’t tried to brutaly strangle Neil or gut him yet like his mother had said men of Andrew’s personality and disposition generally tried to do to people that annoyed them, a category Neil fell pretty solidly into. 

They head out to the diner, and Neil begins to feel a little worried that he had misjudged Andrew before the door swings open with a jingle, and the man in question walks in, his all black ensemble reflected quite funnily on the pastel interior of Sweety’s. 

Andrew slides in alongside Neil, leaving a couple of inches between them, and somehow managing to not make Neil feel trapped as he often does when cornered. 

The waitress comes and takes their order, and Andrew looks a little disgusted (or so Neil thinks, it’s a little hard to read his expressions) at Neil’s choice of salad, and Neil in turn raises his eyebrows at Andrew’s disgusting sounding combination of cake and root beer float. Matt and Dan order a smoothie and pancakes respectively. 

The silence stretches on, and Neil starts kicking his feet against the booth absentmindedly. He realizes something suddenly, and checks to see if he’s right. Once it’s confirmed, it’s hard to hold in his laughter, and the other occupants of the table are soon curious. 

“It’s just - my feet don’t touch the floor.” Is the most he can get out before giggles overcome him.

It takes Matt a couple of seconds but he catches on. He nudges Dan and whispers something to her, and they both look over at Andrew and laugh.

Dan is braver than Matt and Neil by far, and even goes as far to ask Andrew straight up the question all of them were dying to know the answer to.

“Do your feet usually not touch the ground when you sit in a chair?”

“...”

“C’mon, this’ll be one of my questions.”

Andrew sighs longsufferingly. “Yes.” Matt hoots, and they break out again in giggles, tears streaming down Neil’s face. Andrew starts getting out of the booth, but Neil is able to compose himself enough to get out a few words.

“No, wait, please-”

Andrew’s face turns thunderous. 

He hisses angrily at Neil, still mindful of Matt and Dan.

“Don’t use that word.”

“What? Pl-”

Neil realizes why people are so scared of Andrew. The expression on his face is pure murder, and Neil has seen a lot of people pre-killing. This looks frighteningly similar to what Andrew looks like currently.

“Alright, okay, I won’t say it. But would you just stay until we get our food at least.” 

Andrew pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“Fine. But I’m not answering any more of your dumbass friends’ questions.” 

“Hey-” Neil starts saying in defense of his ‘dumbass friends’ before thinking better of it. 

“Okay.” 

Over the weeks of tutoring, Neil feels himself warming up to Andrew more and more, speaking up for him more often when Riko complains about him, and interjecting when someone refers to him as ‘the monster’.

The questions continue too. Andrew learns about Neil’s fear of commitment and binding relationships, and Neil learns about Andrew’s fear of heights, and his not freely given fear of being caged in. 

Andrew learns about Neil’s abusive father and his law school dreams for Neil in not so many words, and Neil learns little by little the case against Drake that caused him to have to repeat his sophmore year. 

It’s the most Neil’s talked about himself in, well, ever. And it’s nerve wracking. But Neil knows, trusts, that Andrew won’t tell. It’s mutually assured destruction after all. The emotional equivalent of the Cold War. He has Andrew’s secrets, and Andrew has his. 

Neil’s on his way to Kevin and Andrew’s apartment now for tutoring. A place where they’ve been spending more and more time since Neil’s dorm had been deemed unlivable, and Andrew refused to go to the library since they caught a couple having sex in the stacks. Neil was disturbed, but Andrew just looked disgusted, especially after the girl looked over, winked, and continued moaning. 

Neil knocks on the door sharply, and waits for the customary yelling for Kevin to open the door, and then Andrew finally realizing that Kevin’s listening to classical music too loudly for him to hear the door open. The latch slides across and Andrew swings the door open, but stops Neil before he can get any further than the entryway. He tosses something shiny to Neil, and Neil catches it on reflex and stares. 

He takes a deep breath, and feels something move deep in his chest. Neil knows how important this is for both him and Andrew, and how physically vulnerable it makes Andrew now.

“Why?”

Neil only asks him one word, but Andrew seems to grasp the million and one questions Neil has. 

“It’s a house key, not a fucking car. I didn’t even pay for it. It was just the extra the landlord gave us after Kevin lost his first three keys.”

“But.”

Andrew pulls out his books, ending the conversation swiftly. Neil’s giddy and lightheaded for the rest of the day, and falls asleep to the soft look Andrew had on his face after he realized the teary eyed look on Neil’s face was from joy rather than fear. The Foxes have started to hang out outside of the tutoring sessions after Wymack limited it to once a week after the improvements on the midterms. They started gathering at Sweety’s after the manager of Nino’s had kicked them out for the “Tom Jones Incident” as Nicky had dubbed it. 

Neil and Andrew arrive together after a late night/ early morning start at the Starbucks. Andrew’s wearing Neil’s sweatshirt, his frame partially obscured by the overlarge hood and sleeves. Neil was only wearing a thick cotton tank top underneath (less than what he usually wears out in public), and Allison notices, wolf whistling at the two of them as they enter. 

“Wow Neil, I see you’re finally stepping up your fashion game.” Neil’s confused. He hadn’t started dressing any different since the last time Allison had seen him.

Aaron clears it up pretty quick.

“Are you fucking Andrew?”

“What? No! Not that- that’s like, bad or anything? I don’t know! I don’t swing!” 

“Then why the fuck are you wearing his shirt.”

Neil colors sharply, moving his arms to cover the evidence.

Neil must’ve picked it up at some point or spilled something and changed into it and forgot to give it back. 

“I..”

“Leave it.” Andrew says. Neil can’t tell if it’s directed at him or Aaron. Whoever it was meant for, the command makes both of them drop the topic.

Neil sits down gratefully. 

There’s a couple of minutes of aimless discussion over a new movie that the group had been debating on seeing or waiting to get it on DVD for a movie night, when Kevin enters, the door clanking and jingling behind him.

He’s on the phone, and whatever the conversation is about, it’s clearly not going well, as Kevin has an angry turn to his lips and a furrow between his brows. He’s speaking loud enough for Neil to pick up a few words, and it’s more than enough to discern what the conversation is about.

“Professor, please. I just want to graduate. My grade’s been high enough for the rest of the semester. Can’t you allow me to pass this one test? Or check the grade again? I was so sure I passed.”

Neil was one hundred percent sure Kevin had gotten an A- or higher, and Riko was just being a dick. Andrew seems to think the same thing, and Neil follows only seconds after him when he pushes past Kevin roughly, leaving Kevin with a confused look on his face and Nicky calling after them. 

When Andrew and Neil arrive at Riko’s office, the door is locked tight. Andrew just gestures Neil forward, and Neil drops quickly to his knees, pulling out a paperclip and a bobby pin and chooses to ignore how Andrew picked up on Neil’s lock picking skills. 

Something gives inside the lock and Neil steps back, letting Andrew go in first, and go he does. With a dramatic kick, he forces open the door, undoing the entire point of Neil picking the lock. Neil just shakes his head and follows him in. He stops being as casual when he finds Riko dangling an inch or so off the floor with his face turning purple and Andrew’s hand around his neck, Riko’s phone lying a few feet away with cracks running up the screen. Surprisingly enough, Riko seems sadistically pleased by this position, and it’s easy to see (or hear in this case) why once Neil gets closer. 

“Does he know everything? Did you trust him? He’s a liar you know. Neil. Or was it Alex? Chris? I can’t even remember at this point,” Riko murmurs, shaking his head as far as he can in his current position. Andrew has a snarl on his face, but Neil can see the doubt forming in his eyes. He’s told Andrew some of his past, but never enough to put him in danger. Never this much. 

He tries to move forward. To seperate the two, to shut Riko up, but his feet are frozen to the floor, and the only thing moving is his heart, feeling like it’s going to beat out of his chest or freeze up or some mix of the two. 

Riko finally looks away from Andrew, and his eyebrows raise in surprise. Andrew turns to see what he’s looking at and drops Riko. As Riko crumples to the floor he starts laughing. A cackling, witchy sort of sound, the type of laughter that’s going to haunt Neil’s dreams in the future. All he wanted to do was to find a small town to settle down, and he was fine, even after he found Kevin. 

“Remember, Kevin, he’s who we’re here for. I’ll tell you, I swear I’ll explain. But we have to finish this first.”

Andrew seems to struggle with himself before turning back to Riko, who hasn’t even tried to get up. His neck has bruised finger marks wrapping around it. 

Andrew finally speaks, his voice scratchy, but controlled, ice in winter barely covering a sure death. 

“I don’t know what the hell you have on Kevin, or why he keeps going back to you instead of going to the Dean, but I swear to you, I won’t hesitate to kill you to keep him safe”.

“Aww.. You care about Kevin that much? He’s broken materials now! If you’re keeping him for his brain you might as well give him up now. He can’t do much without a hand to write with.”

“You think I give a fuck about his brain? I value our deal. And I’m going to honor it one way or another. I’ve spent enough time on the sidelines watching you step all over him.”

“How naive. You think I only have things on Kevin? I thought you were better than this.”

“He’s in prison. You can’t do anything about this.”

Neil knows a little of what’s going on, but just enough to keep him afloat in this rapid fire argument. Kevin has been awfully flighty and moody since he broke his hand, and everyone knew that he had a weird favorite child relationship with Riko and Dean Tetsuji. What he didn’t know was how Riko knew about the Drake v The Children’s Bureau and Andrew’s anonymous testimony. Which was supposed to be anonymous. And sealed. 

“And Neil,” shit. shitshitshitshitshit. “Your father’s been asking a lot of questions about where you are. You know he wanted you to get that law degree.” 

Fuck.

Neil’s voice cracks on the words, but he forces them out. 

“How do you know my father.” 

Riko’s smile turns harder, sharper. It’s a knife slice across his face, and Neil has no problem imagining him working with his father.

“Oh, don’t you know, we’re business partners.”

Though the answer’s innocuous sounding, Neil knows it’s anything but. It’s a wonder there isn’t a knife to his throat yet and Lola’s sickly perfume surrounding him. He knows it’s only a matter of time before her and Romero arrive. 

He breathes in, deep, once, twice, counting to ten in every language he knows. Neil knows what he has to do. It’s been a long time coming, and he doesn’t want Andrew caught in the crosshairs. 

Inhale, exhale. On the inhale he leaps forward, grabs Andrew around the waist and bodily slings him through the door, on the exhale he whispers to Andrew, blocking him with the closing door as he tries to rush in, before locking it and allowing himself one brief breath of reprise before turning to face Riko. 

Riko’s stood up now, and stares down his nose at him, using the precious inches he has on Neil as best as he can. 

“I should’ve known you’d tried to make a last stand. You’re a fucking roach, just like your bitch of a mother. You think you kill them, but they just keep coming back.”

“Don’t talk about my mother like that,” Neil spits. If he’s going to die today, he sure as hell isn’t just going to lie back and take it. 

Riko opens his mouth, but is interrupted by a knock on the door, polite and jarring in the wake of the fight. 

“Let us in junior! You know your daddy doesn’t like to be kept waiting.” A feminine voice croons. 

A block of ice settles deep in Neil’s stomach, and he instinctively steps away from the door, brushing past Riko as he walks towards it.

“Well, I guess that’s my queue.” 

There’s a scuffle when Neil tries to rush Riko and escape out the door, but Romero is a full foot taller and a good hundred pounds heavier, and easily pushes Neil back in the office towards Lola, who’s sitting on Riko’s desk with a knife twirling around her candy colored fingernail. 

A claw from her hand not holding the knife brushes across his jaw, and Neil struggles back as Romero holds him in place.

Lola’s warm breath brushes his cheek as she leans forward to whisper in his ear. 

“Don’t be afraid to scream junior, your mommy couldn’t help it either.”

Neil just bares his teeth at her, and she cackles. 

“Now, now dear brother of mine, please bring Nathaniel to join me in the car. We should really be making our way back to Baltimore. We’re already a little behind schedule.” 

Neil hits his head on the way in to the car, a nondescript toyota with a fake license plate and scratches running up and down the sides. When he’s shoved it, he smells lemon scented bleach on the leather and sees rusty colored splatters on the ceiling. A vehicle well broken in. 

Lola crawls over to him, all lethal grace and inconvenient bloody soled louboutins, and brings out a roll of knives from under the middle seat, tapping one fingernail against her puckered lips, critically looking over each knife. Neil knows what she’s doing, he’s seen the men sent after his mother and him do it to. How to analyze each knife and determine which one to be the best one to use on which specific victim in which specific situation. (It also helped that it generally freaked out the victims and made them break quicker and cleaner, it’d worked on Neil and his mother a couple times. Unfortunately for Lola, Neil knew the tricks of the trade. He was practiced in the art of faking fearlessness. After all, if he had shown a weak front, he might’ve been killed. 

When she finally made her selection he just leans back and takes it, biting the inside of his mouth until it was ragged to muffle the screams that threaten to escape with every burning cold bite of the knife. 

What he wasn’t prepared for was the cigarette burner Lola palmed once she gave up on the knives. The first and second press of it was hell, the smell of burning skin and memories of a similar car on a different highway halfway across the country. By the third he’d blacked out. 

 

 

For the first time in many years Andrew was out of his depth. He’d thought he was prepared for whatever the world was willing to throw at him, after all, he’d gotten through Drake’s trial still mostly intact. He knew Neil was a liar, that there was something he was missing, but he never knew it was this serious. 

Andrew sits, stunned, against the door to Riko’s office for a minute, letting the anger and shame of being betrayed and lied to for so long wash over him, before the gravity and need for celerity hits him. He reenters the Starbucks panting, having run faster than he had in over ten years (his penchence for Marlboros probably hadn’t helped), and immediately makes his way over to Kevin, ignoring the questions of everyone else. 

Kevin looked up from where he’s pouting in a red booth.

“Well? What took you so long? And where’s Neil?”

“Funny. That’s just what I was going to ask you.”

Kevin’s face turns gray. 

“Wh- what do you mean. What happened!” Kevin makes an aborted movement towards Andrew, as if to grab him and shake him, but Andrew pushes him back in his seat with a fingertip against his forehead. 

“Why did you assume something happened Kevin? What do you know that I don’t. And don’t hold back, or I’ll go to Riko and tell him you know everything. I don’t know that much about kidnapping, but I assume witnesses are generally not appreciated.”

Someone in the group behind Andrew makes a small gasp at the word ‘kidnapped’ and Allison wonders aloud at the meaning before Renee shushes her softly.

Kevin notices, and turns a judgemental eye towards the small crowd, for a minute looking like his usual self.

“Maybe we should go somewhere a little more private.”

“Lead on, and quickly,” Andrew turns back to the other Foxes. “Don’t follow us.”

In a minute they’re at the back of the coffee shop in the designated smoking area. 

“I’m going to start off by saying that I should’ve never known this stuff, and that you should get out now while you still have a chance of survival.”

Andrew waves his hand carelessly, “Boring, next.”

Kevin takes in a deep shuddering breath before beginning his story. “My mom died when I was 8 years old, Kayleigh Day, the old Dean of the History Department, leaving me under the care of the current Dean of Admissions, Tetsuji Moriyama.” 

“Is this relevant?” 

Kevin just turns his nose up and continues. “My mom would get weird visitors sometimes when I was younger, and I would see the stuff they brought. A lot of times it was just papers, but sometimes they would bring guns, or strange old books. When she died, I was finally told what was going on. Kengo is the school president, and the leader of the Moriyama yakuza. His son, Ichirou, is being groomed as his replacement. Riko is his brother, as Tetsuji is Kengo’s. Nathan Wesninski is Kengo’s right hand man. He handles the dirty work. Any lawsuits or competitors are either threatened, blackmailed, or taken out by him. He operates out of Baltimore. The feds have been watching him for a while now though, so I’m not sure where he would take Nathaniel.”

“Nathaniel?” 

“Neil. He was on the run for a really long time. I honestly thought he was dead until sophomore year, when he showed up here. All of the other crime families have assumed the same. The only reason Nathaniel-”

“His name is Neil.” “Fine, Neil, would be kidnapped was if his father wanted him and Riko was willing to help. I don’t think the main branch, Kengo and Ichirou, would endorse it.”

“Great, now I know the background of a soon to be dead man. Now, how could I help him?”

“Ummm….”

“You’re telling me that you don’t fucking know!”

“Well, there’s one person?”

“Thank fuck. Who is it?”

“Neil’s British uncle.”

“So, the only person that could possibly help Neil, excluding the FBI which are hopefully already on the case, is twenty hours away by plane?” 

“It won’t hurt to try?” 

Andrew gives it a thought. Technically, it’s the only option they have other than trying to track down Neil themselves.

“Fine. Call him.” 

The phone line rings brightly, a strange sound in the otherwise silent parking lot. Finally someone picks up.

“This is Hatford’s Sperm Bank, you squeeze it we freeze it. This is Melissa speaking.”

“Amy, I know it’s you. I need to talk to Stuart. It’s Nathaniel.”

“Nathaniel? How are you? I haven’t seen you in years!” “No, it’s Kevin speaking, we need to talk about Nathaniel. There’s been a problem.”

“Ohhhh.. What’s he gotten into now.” 

“Nathan’s kidnapped him.” 

“Well, that certainly is a problem. I’ll hand the phone to Stuart now.”

A surprisingly high but distinctly masculine british voice greets Andrew politely.

“Now, I’ve heard little Nathaniel, 

“Neil,”

“ _Nathaniel_ , has gotten himself into a bit of a pickle, and you seem to think I’m the person who should fix it.” 

Kevin’s anxiously twisting his hands together, and trying to give helpful pointers, which really aren’t all that helpful.

“Tell him I’ll owe him. Tell him Neil’ll owe him. Wait, tell him he owes Neil because of the whole, ‘I can’t protect Mary and you for reasons I won’t tell you’ thing.” 

Andrew wordlessly walks towards his car, and pointedly locks the doors behind him when Kevin follows. 

Andrew sighs, ignoring Kevin, who’s trying to get his attention by either performing the weakest attempt at opening a door, or trying to trick Andrew into doing it himself with pity. It was almost working too until Kevin threw his hands up with a huff and stormed away.

“What do you want for it?” 

“I want back in with the Moriyamas.”

“Really? The Moriyamas of all people?” 

“Hey, just because their front is weak doesn’t mean they actually are.” “I guess.” Andrew is still a little doubtful about it. Stuart’s alliance with the Moriyama’s is really worth his nephew’s life? Maybe he should try getting in with them. 

“I’ve got a car ready to go, luckily we were already here on business.” 

“Really.” 

“Yes really. Now, do you want us to pick you up first, or just head there.”

“Hmmm… Maybe just _save him already_.”

“Your choice.”

The line goes dead with a click. Andrew never thought to ask how Stuart knew where Neil was going to be. It didn’t really matter anyways as long as Neil was safe. God, when did he turn into such a sap. Next thing you know, Andrew’ll be up there in the church choir with Renee singing about lambs and bread. 

Nathaniel awakes to the familiar sound of a blade being sharpened, and the whispers of two voices arguing loudly. It’s not that different from his childhood, but his mother’s been replaced by his father’s creepy murderess secretary Lola. 

He fakes being unconscious for as long as possible, but his father eventually gets bored of waiting around and kicks him awake. Also not that different from his childhood.

“Nathaniel,” His father sighs, sugary sweet disappointment coating his words. “My greatest failure. How have you been?”

“Great, other than y’know, the repeated attempts on my life.”

“I apologize for the inconvenience, but if you didn’t end up joining the family business, there were a little too many secrets floating around for me to be entirely comfortable with letting you live.”

“Secrets like the one where you’re apparently in an alliance with Kevin’s crime family? Kevin from tutoring? And that your secretary has some weird -ass knife kink!” 

Nathan laughs coldly. 

“God, you must’ve inherited your mother’s brains. You really haven’t guessed it by now?”

Nathaniel shakes his head, confused and pleasantly surprised that he isn’t dead yet. Apparently villains monologue in real life too. 

“I’m not a fucking lawyer, and Lola’s not my secretary. We didn’t just teach you how to murder animals ‘cause we were sociopaths.”

“Wh-What?” But Nathaniel remembers seeing his father look over papers late at night, doing calculations and researching. He has (or at least had) a fucking diploma from Columbia Law School hanging over his desk. 

“Well- I am a lawyer, I’m just also the head of the Baltimore Crime Syndicate.” 

Weird parts of Nathaniel’s childhood, the random blood splatters in the basement, the way certain doors in the house were always locked, how his mother and him went on the run when he was ten all start to make sense. 

“You seriously never figured it out? I tried to kill you!”

“I just thought you knew a couple hitmen or something!”

Nathan shakes his head disparagingly. 

“Enough with the chitter - chatter. I didn’t want to have to do this, but you’ve forced my hand.”

Nathan holds out his gloved hand, and Lola hands him a cleaver, but just before he swings down, someone whistles loud and clear. 

“Move in!” It’s an FBI agent barking orders, SWAT painted in bold yellow on the back of his tactile vest. 

Neil breathes a sigh of relief before collapsing, exhausted, on the cold basement floor. 

He closes his eyes, but opens them again when he hears a grunt. 

His father swings the cleaver down, this time to a place decidedly more deadly than his leg. Nathaniel rolls to the side just enough to avoid the blade, and the FBI agents finally seem to realize who the biggest threat in the room is. They cuff Nathan, read him his rights, and then peel Neil off the floor. 

“For fucksake, I was just tortured! Can you go a little easy on the arrest?”

The FBI agents ignore him and continue shoving him roughly towards the waiting police cab. 

The one that had been handling Neil leans through the driver’s side window and whispers something to the driver, then pats the roof of the car and steps back. 

When Neil is finally situated in the car, the police officer in the passenger seat turns around and waves to Neil. 

“Hullo! You’ve grown quite a bit since I’ve seen you last.”

“Uncle Stuart? Dad always said you went a little crazy after 2000 and never let us visit.” 

“Yes, that would be me. But your father didn’t want you to visit me because we were still at odds on a few political points.” Stuart winks conspiratorially. 

“Like actual politics or gang politics. Because apparently, half of my family is a gang, and I’m trying to figure out if the other half is as well.” It’s a wonder how much pain Neil is sitting through, and he’s wondering why he isn’t in an ambulance, but at least if Neil gets answers he wouldn’t die confused. 

“I’m a little offended you don’t think gang politics are actual politics, but yes, the second.” He holds out his hand, and shakes it in the air, Neil not reaching for it for fear of re-aggravating his injuries. 

“Pleasure to meet you, Stuart Hatford, of the British Hatford crime family.” 

He pauses, smiling, and Neil sighs. Apparently this is his life now. 

“Nice to meet you too.” 

Stuart jabbers on about classes and Eurovision as the car pulls up to a hospital, and constantly switches the radio from country to EDM and then back again when commercials come on. Neil’s honestly a little glad he was never allowed to visit. 

Neil limps out of the car and into the hospital, and is rushed into one of the closed off rooms as a nurse chews out Stuart and the ‘police officer’ in the driver’s seat tries to stop her from calling the real authorities. Everything’s a blur of white lights and hushed voices, but his face feels less like it’s going to fall off now, and he can actually move his arms without black spots crowding his vision. 

The hushed voices start to become decidedly less hushed, and the room becomes decidedly less white as his study group seems to enter his room. If it’s a dream, it’s the weirdest and sweetest one Neil’s had in his life. He knows it’s him just wishing for the impossibility of his old life back, but the foxes seem really real. 

And then Nicky sees his face and the dream turns into reality, or just a nightmare, because Nicky can apparently scream really loudly, and wow, Neil’s surprised he hasn’t gone deaf yet. A nurse runs in as fast as she can in her clogs to shush him. 

Matt reaches towards him as if to try and hug him, but Andrew quickly pushes him out of the way. 

_Andrew_

“Andrew.”

“Liar.”

“Only a lie of omission. I never wanted you to get hurt.” 

Andrew strides towards him, faster than his short legs should mathematically let him, and reaches up to cradle Neil’s face in his hands. His hands are calloused and rough, but his grip is soft enough to not aggravate the injuries. 

After a couple of seconds or minutes, maybe hours, Neil isn’t really counting, Aaron clears his throat. 

“So, we’re just going to ignore Neil getting kidnapped and tortured? Why aren’t there any police officers here?”

Neil turns to Kevin. 

“You didn’t at least explain a little on the ride here? You knew at least part of the story right?” 

“Andrew wouldn’t let me.” Kevin looks triumphantly over at Andrew. Andrew just stares at Neil. 

“My dad is - was a sociopathic lawyer who used to make me kill animals when I was younger and used to abuse me when I wouldn’t do it. He started trying to get me to kill bigger and bigger animals, and actually torture them, draw it out, but my mom packed our bags in the middle of the night and drove me to Memphis. We were on the run since, and my dad would send hitmen after us every couple of months, so we were constantly moving. I had met Kevin when my father brought me to Evermore Law School to talk legalities with the dean. When I started college, we reconnected, but I was Neil, so he didn’t recognize me. I was kidnapped by Riko, -”

Allison looks up from where she’d been pretending to pick her nails. 

“The creepy chem teacher?”

“Yup.”

Her lip curls as she spits. 

“I always knew there was something seriously wrong with him. No one could get that much pleasure out of seeing us fail his stupid midterms.” 

Matt raises an eyebrow. 

“Have you never been inside his office? He has literal walls covered in those butterfly boards. I think I’ve seen a couple of brains in jars.”

“Can we get back to Neil’s story,” Renee redirects. “I’d really love to know why he’s currently in a hospital bed. 

“As I was saying, Riko kidnapped me, and my dad’s secretary Lola tortured me in the car. I blacked out and woke up to my dad, who villain monologued until the Feds and my crime uncle from Britain showed up.” 

“Huh.” 

“Oh, I left out how the Moriyama's, Dean Kengo, history professor Tetsuji, and chem professor Riko are all part of the Yakuza, and teaching is just a front and a way to launder money. And my dad was their hitman in addition to being their lawyer. Also I’m the heir to the Baltimore Crie Syndicate since my dad was shot by the Feds.”

There’s no huh this time, and everyone except for Kevin and Andrew seem to be in shock.

“No exclamation Kevin? I thought you were close to Riko.”

“I already knew all of this, and I thought you had just started going by a nickname or something in Freshman year.” 

“Are you serious? Why’d you never bring anything up!” 

“Talking about your crime family with the son of your adopted uncle’s hired killer isn’t exactly something you do in public _Nathaniel_.” Kevin says testily.

Neil flinches. 

Kevin mumbles a “sorry” a goes back to staring at his shoes. 

Without prompting, Andrew answers Neil’s unasked question.

“Kevin filled me in when we were calling your uncle. I guess Stuart contacted him in case something like this ever happened. 

“Cool.”

A couple more minutes of silence and processing pass until the same nurse from earlier comes in to give them a five minute warning. The foxes file out one by one, each giving Neil some variation of the same get well message until only Andrew remains. 

“Yes or no.”

“Yes?”

Andrew reaches forward, and brushes Neil’s hair off his forehead, and turns around, the action expressing more meaning than any of the goodbyes the foxes had said. 

In the doorway he turns back, his hair haloed in the florescent hospital lights like some angel of death, and nods once brusquely. 

“Get some rest idiot.”

Neil smiles to himself and falls into a dreamless sleep. 

 

 

Two months later, Neil is sitting in Wymack’s english classroom, taking his final after finally being released from the hospital. He finishes with twenty minutes to spare after checking his answers, drops the blue books onto Wymack’s desk, and walks up to Wymack, who’s checking his phone near the doorway. He claps a hand on Neil’s shoulder, and shoves him towards the door. 

“I’m gonna miss you kid.”

“I’ll visit!” Neil yells as he jogs out of the classroom, glad to finally be done for summer. 

He opens the door to his, Andrew, and Kevin’s apartment (but Kevin’s spending more time at Thea The PHD Student’s apartment than at his own these days) and cups his hands around his mouth to shout his customary entrance.

“Honey, I’m home! And I wasn’t kidnapped on my way from class either.” 

A blond head pokes over the arm of the slightly less nasty couch Andrew acquired while Neil was in the hospital. 

“I wish you were.” 

Neil pouts until Andrew sighs and sits up, motioning for Neil to sit next to him, and promptly buries his cold toes under Neil’s bare thigh.

“ _Fuck_.” Neil squirms, but doesn’t get up. He hold his hand questioningly over Andrew’s hair until Andrew nods, and relaxes into the cushions, combing his hand absentmindedly across Andrew’s scalp as he recounts his day, and how he thinks he did on his test. 

It’s a perfect picture of domesticity, and Neil wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

He sits up suddenly.

“Do you think we should get a cat?”

Andrew’s quick to answer. 

“Not in a million years.”

Next Thursday breakfast at Sweetie’s, Neil is animatedly recounting the story of King’s first hairball to the foxes, while Andrew pointedly ignores him. If this were a movie, the story would fade from the garish color of the ice cream shop into pastels, and a sappy song would play in the background as the end credits start to roll. The last shot would be of Neil grinning while he holds Andrew’s hand under the table, Andrew’s face blank, but turned towards Neil’s like a flower to the sun, and of Nicky mmhming every couple of seconds when Neil pauses, while it’s clear that he’s texting someone under the table, Allison too wrapped up in playing with the pastel ends of Renee’s hair to comment. 

It’d be of Aaron’s sitting on the other side of the table, as far from Andrew and Neil as can be, but holding the hand of a red haired girl with a passing resemblance to Neil, and looking at peace. In the background there’d be Matt and Dan occasionally interjecting with questions with the grace of parents at a dinner table, and last Kevin studying in the seat next to them. 

If you look close enough, you would see Abby and Wymack sitting a couple of tables over, sharing a breakfast special of eggs and bacon, and pretending to not listen in. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Fic Art](https://broship-addict.tumblr.com/post/177752730532/)
> 
>  
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://exy-courts.tumblr.com)


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